Maloney hinted that if Henderson was popular enough, she would still remain in the competition.

"The public are picking up the phone and voting for me. If they would have picked it up and voted for Ella or James and kept them in, then Ella would still be here," he told The Sun.

"It's not my problem," he added.

Speaking about his death threats, he said: "I take the competition seriously but not to the point where someone wants to stab me."

However, he added to The Mirror that he feels he now has a serious chance of winning the whole show, saying: "I go out week after week and all I get is bad comments, but it's so close to the final now I could win.

"I'm working harder than any other contestant probably ever in the competition."